he tells that one of the three returned soon after repenting it seems next morning and so he receiv'd him again into the Church unto the Laick Communion But for the other two he had sent Successors into their places And yet after all this ado and the whetting of Constantine contrary to his own Nature and his own Declarations against the Novatians I cannot find their Heresie to have been others than that they were the Puritans of those times and a sort of Non-conformists that could have subscribed to the Six and thirty Articles but differed only in those of Discipline and upon some enormities therein separated and which will always be sufficient to qualifie an Heretick they instituted Bishops of their own in most places And yet afterwards in the times of the best Homoousian Emperors a sober and strictly Religious People did so constantly adhere to them that the Bishops of the Church too found meet to give them fair quarter for as much as they differ'd not in Fundamentals and therefore were of use to them against Hereticks that were more dangerous and diametrically opposite to the Religion Nay in so much that even the Bishop of Constantinople yea of Rome notwithstanding that most tender point and interest of Episcopacy suffered the Novaian Bishops to walk cheek by joul with them in their own Diocess until that as Socr. l. 7. c. 11. the Roman Episcopacy having as it were passed the bounds of Priesthood slip'd into a Secular Principality and thenceforward the Roman ishops would not suffer their Meetings with Security but though they commended them for their Consent in the same Faith with them yet took away all their Estates But at Constantinople they continued to fare better the Bishops of that Church embracing the Novatians and giving them free liberty to keep their Conventicles in their Churches What and to have their Bishops too Altar against Altar A Condescension which as our Non-conformists seem not to desire or think of so the Wisdom of these times would I suppose judge to be very unreasonable but rather that it were fit to take the other course and that whatsoever advantage the Religion might probably receive from their Doctrine and party 't is better to suppress them and make havock both of their Estates and Persons But however the Hereticks in Constantine's time had the less reason to complain of ill measure seeing it was that the Bishops mâ—ted by among themselves I pass over that Controversie betwixt Cecilianus the Bishop of Carthage and his adherents with another set of Bishops there in Africk upon which Constantine ordered ten of each party to appear before Miltiades the Bishop of Rome and others to have it decided Yet after they had given Sentence Constantine found it necessary to have a Council for a review of the business as in his Letter to Chrestus the Bishop of Syracuse Euseb. l. 10. c. 6. Whereas â—everal have formerly separated from the Catholick Heresie for that word was not yet so ill natured but that it might sometimes be used in its proper and good Sense and then relates his Commission to the Bishop of Rome and others But forasmuch as some having been careless of their own salvation and forgetting the reverence due to that most holy Heresie again will not yet lay down their enmity nor admit the sentence that hath been given obstinately affirming that they were but a few that pronounced the Sentence and that they did it very precipitately before they had duly enquired of the matter and from thence it hath happened that both they who ought to have kept a brotherly and unanimous agreement together do abominably and flagitiously deissâ—t from one another and such whose minds are alienated from the most hâ—ly Religion do make a mockery both of it and them Therefore I c. have commanded very many Bishops out of innumerable places to meet at Arles that what ought to have been quieted upon the former Sentence pronounced may now at least be determined c. and you to be one of them and therefore I have ordered the Prefect of Sicily to furnish you with one of the publick Stage-Coaches and so many Servants c. Such was the use then of Stage-Coaches Post-Horsâ—s and Councils to the great disappointment and grievance of the many both Men and Horses and Leather being hackney-jaded and worn out upon the errand of some contentious and obstinate Bishop So went the Affairs hitherto and thus well disposed and prepared were the Bishops to receive the Holy Ghost a second time at the great and first general Council of Nice which is so much Celebrated The occasions of calling it were two The first a most important question in which the Wit and Piety of their Predecessors and now theirs successively had been much exercised and taken up that was upon what day they ought to keep Easter which though it were no point of Faith that it should be kept at all yet the very calendary of it was controverted with the same zeal and made as heavy ado in the Church as if both parties had been Hereticks And it is reckoned by the Church Historians as one of the chief felicities of Constanstines Empire to have quieted in that Council this main controversie The second cause of the assembling them here was indeed grown as the Bishops had order'd it a matter of the greatest weight and consequence to the Christian Religion one Arrius having as is related to the disturbance of the Church started a most pernicious opinion in the point of the Trinity Therefore from all parts of the Empire they met together at the City of Nice two hundred and fifty Bishops and better saith Eusebius a goodly company three hundred and eighteen say others and the Animadverter too with that pithy remark pa. 23. Equal almost to the number of Servants bred up in the House of Abraham The Emperour had accommodated them every where with the publick Posts or laid Horses all along for the convenience of their journey thithers and all the time they were there supplied them abundantly with all sorts of provision at his own charges And when they were all first assembled in Council in the great Hall of the Imperial Palace he came in having put on his best Clothes to make his Guests welcome and saluted them with that profound humility as if they all had been Emperors nor would sit down in his Throne no it was a very little and low stool till they had all beckoned and made signs to him to sit down No wonder if the first Council of Nice run in their heads ever after and the ambitious Clergy like those who have beeâ— long a thirst took so much of Constantines kindness that they are scarce come to themselves again after so many Ages The first thing was that he acquainted them with the causes of his summoning them thither and in a grave and most Christian discourse exhorted them to keep the peace or to a good
be punish'd by Deprivation and Banishment all Arrian Books to be burned and whoever should be discover'd to conceal any of Arrius his writings to die for it But it fared very well with those who were not such fools as to own his opinion All they were entertain'd by the Emperor at a magnificent Feast receiv'd from his hand rich Prâ—sents and were honourably dismist with Letters recommending their great Abilities and performance to the Provinces and enjoyning the Nicene Creed to be hence forth observed With that stroke of the Pen. Socr. l. 1. c. 6. For what three hundred Bishops have agreed on a thing indeed extraordinary ought not to be otherwise conceiv'd of than as the decree of God Almighty especially seeing the Holy Ghost did sit upon the minds of such and so excellent men and open'd his divine will to them So that they went I trow with ample satisfaction and as they could not but take the Emperor for a very civil generous and obliging Gentleman so they thought the better of themselves from that day forward And how budge must they look when they returned back to their Diocesses having every one of 'em been a principal limn of the Oecumenical Apostolical Catholick Orthodox Council When the Catachrestical title of the Church and the Clergy were so appropriate to them by custom that the Christian people had relinquished or forgotten their claim when every Hare that crossed their way homeward was a Schismatick or an Heretick and if their Horse stumbled with one of them he incurr'd an Anathema Well it was that their journeys lay so many several ways for they were grown so cumbersom and great that the Emperor's high-way was too narrow for any two of them and there could have been no passage without the removal of a Bishop But soon after the Council was over Eusebius the Bishop of Nicomedia and Theognis the Bishop of Nice who were already removed both by Banishment and two others put in their places were quickly restor'd upon their Petition wherein they suggested the cause of their not Signing to have been only because they thought they could not with a safe Conscience subscribe the Anathema against Arrius appearing to them both by his writings his discourses and Sermons that they had been Auditors of not to be guilty of those errors As for Arrius himself the Emperor quickly wrote to him It is now a considerable time since I wrote to your Gravity to come to my Tents that you might enjoy my Countenance so that I can sâ—arce wonder sufficiently why you have so long delaid it therefore now take one of the publick Coaches and make all speed to my Tents that having had experience of my kindness and affection to you you may return into your own Country God preserve you most dear Sir Arrius hereupon with his Comrade Euzoius comes to Constantine's Army aâ—d offers him a Petition with a confession of Faith that would have pass'd very well before the Nicene Council and now satisfied the Emperor Socr. l. 1. c. 19 20. insomuch that he writ to Athanasius now Bishop of Alexandria to receive him into the Church but Athanasius was of better mettle than so and absolutely refus'd it Upon this Constantine writ him another threatning Letter When you have understood hereby my pleasure see that you afford free entrance into the Church to all that desire it for if I shall understand that any who desires to be admitted into the Church should be either hindred or forbidden by you I will send some one of my Servants to remove you from your Degree and place another in your stead Yet Athaâ—asius stood it out still though other Churches received him into Communion and the Herâ—tick Novatus could not have been more unrelenting to lapsed Christians than he was to Arrius But this joyned with other crimes which were laid to Athanasius his charge at the Council of Tyre though I suppose indeed they were forged made Athanasius glad to fly for it and remain the first time in exile Upon this whole matter it is my impartial opinion that Arrius or whosoever else were guilty of teaching and publishing those errors whereof he was accused deserved the utmost Severity which consists with the Christian Religion And so willing I have been to think well of Athanasius and ill of the other that I have on purpose avoided the reading as I do the naming of a book that I have heard tells the story quite otherwise and have only made use of the current Historians of those times who all of them tell it against the Arrians Only I will confess that as in reading a particular History at adventure a man finds himself inclinable to favour the weaker party especially if the Conqueror appear insolent so have I been affected in reading these Authors which does but resemble the reasonable pity that men ordinarily have too for those who though for an erroneous Conscience suffer under â— Christian Magistrate And as soon as I come to Constantius I shall for that reason change my compassion and be doubly engaged on the Orthodox party But as to the whole matter of the Council of Nice I must crave liberty to say that from one end to the other though the best of the kind it seems to me to have been a pitiful humane business attended with all the ill circumstances of other worldly affairs conducted by a spirit of ambition and contention the first and so the greatest Occumenical blow that by Christians was given to Christianity And it is not from any sharpness of humor that I discourse thus freely of Things aâ—d Persons much less of Orders of men otherwise venerable but that where ought is extolled beyond reason and to the prejudice of Religion it is necessary to depreciate it by true proportion It is not their censure of Arianism or the declaring of their opinion in a controverted point to the best of their understanding wherein to the smalness of mine they appear to have light upon the truth had they likewise upon the measure that could have moved me to tell so long a story or bring my self within the danger and aim of any captious Reader speaking thus with great liberty of mind but little concern for any prejudice I may receive of things that are by some men Idolized But it is their Imposition of a new Article or Creed upon the Christian world not being contained in express words of Scripture to be believed with Divine Faith under Spiritual and Civil Penalties contrary to the Priviledges of Religion and their making a Precedent follow'd and improv'd by all succeeding Ages for most cruel Persecutions that only could animate me In digging thus for a new deduction they undermined the fabrick of Christianity to frame a particular Doctrine they departed from the general Rule of their Religion and for their curiosity about an Article concerning Christ they violated our Saviour's first Institution of a Church not subject to any Addition in matters
Christian Religion and thereby defeated the flattâ—ring Bishops which sort of men saith he wittily do not worship Gâ—d but the Imperial Purple It was the same Themistius that only out of an upright natural apprehension of things made that excellent Oration afterward to Valens which is in Print exhorting him to cease Persecution wherein he chances upon and improves the same notion with Constantines and tells him That he should not wonder at the Dissents in Christian Religion which were very small if compared with the multitude and crowd of Opinions among the Gentile Philosophers for there were at least three hundred differences and a very great dissention among them there was about their resolutions unto which each several Sect was as it were necessarily bound up and obliged And that God seemed to intend more to illustrate his own glory by that diverse and unequal variety of Opinions to the end every each one might therefore so much the more reverence his Divine Majesty because it is not pâ—ssible for any one accurately to know him And this had a good effect upon Valens for the mitigating in some measure his severities against his fellow Christians So that after having cast about in this Summary again whereby it plainly appears that according to natural right and the apprehension of all sober Heathen Governours Christianity as a Religion was wholly exempt from the Magistrates jurisdiction or Laws farther than any particular person among them immorally transgressed as others the common rules of human society I cannot but return to the Question with which I begun What was the matter How came it about that Christianity which approved it self under all Persecutions to the Heathen Emperours and merited their favour so far till at last it regularly succeeded to the Monarchy should under those of their own profession be more distressed But the Answer is now much shorter and certainer and I will adventure boldly to say the true and single cause then was the Bishops And they were the cause against reason For what power had the Emperours by growing Christians more than those had before them None What obligation were Christian Subjects under to the Magistrate more than before None But the Magistrates Christian Authority was what the Apostle describ'd it while Heathen not to be a terror to good works but to evil What new Power had the Bishops acquired whereby they turned every Pontificate into a Caiaphat None neither 2 Cor. 10. 8. Had they been Apostles The Lord had but given them Authority for edification not for destruction They of all other ought to have Preached to the Magistrate the terrible denunciations in Scripture against usurping upon and persecuting of Christians They of all others ought to have laid before them the horrible Examples of God's ordinary Justice against those that exercised Persecution But provided they could be the Swearers of the Prince to do all due Allegiance to the Church and to preserve the Rights and Liberties of the Church however they came by them they would give them as much scope as he pleased in matter of Christianity and would be the first to solicite him to break the Laws of Christ and ply him with hot places of Scripture in order to all manner of Oppression and Persecution in Civils and Spirituals So that the whole business how this unchristian Tyranny came and could entitle it self among Christians against the Christian priviledges was only the case in Zech. 13. 6. 7. And one shall say unto him What are these wounds in thy hands Then he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my Friends Because they were all Christians they thought forsooth they might make the bolder with them make bolder with Christ and wound him again in the hands and feet of his members Because they were Friends they might use them more coarsly and abuse them against all common civility in their own house which is a Protection to Strangers And all this to the end that a Bishop might sit with the Prince in Iunto to consult wisely how to preserve him from those people that never meant him any harm and to secure him from the Sedition and Rebellion of men that seek nor think any thing more but to follow their own Religious Christian Worship It was indeed as ridiculous a thing to the Pagans to see that work as it was afterwards in England to Strangers where Papists and Protestants went both to wrack at the same instant in the same Market and when Erasmns said wittily Quid agitur in Angliâ— Consulitur he might have added though not so elegantly Comburiturâ— de Religione Because they knew that Christian Worship was free by Christ's Institution they procured the Magistrate to make Laws in it concerning things necessary As the Heathen Persecutor Iulian introduced some bordering Pagan Ceremonies and arguing with themselves in the same manner as he did Soz. l. 5. c. 16. That if Christians should obey those Laws they should be able to bring them about to something further which they had designed But if they would not then they might proceed against them without any hope of pardon as breakers of the Laws of the Empire and represents them as turbulent and dangerous to the Government Indeed whatsoever the Animadverter saith of the Act of Scditious Conventicles here in England as if it were Anvill'd after another of the Roman Senate the Christians of those Ages had all the finest tools of Persecution out of Iulian's Shop and studied him then as cuâ—iously as some do now Machiavel These Bishops it was who because the Rule of Christ was incomparible with the Power that they assumed and the Vices they practised had no way to render themselves necessary or tolerable to Princes but by making true Piety difficult by Innovating Laws to revenge themselves upon it and by turning Make-bates between Prince and People instilling dangers of which themselves were the Authors Hence it is that having awakened this Jealousie once in the Magistrate against Religion they made both the Secular and the Ecclesiastical Government so uneasie to him that most Princes began to look upon their Subjects as their Enemies and to imagine a reason of State different from the Interest of their People and therefore to weaken themselves by seeking unnecessary and grievous supports to their Authority Whereas if men could have refrain'd this cunning and from thence forcible governing of Christianity leaving it to its own simplicity and due liberty but causing them in all other things to keep the Kings and Christs peace among themselves and towards others all the ill that could have come of it would have been that such kind of Bishops should have prov'd less implemental but the good that must have thence risen to the Christian Magistrate and the Church then and ever after would have been inexpressible But this discourse having run in a manner wholly upon the Imposition of Creâ—ds may seem not to concern and I desire that it may not